DESCRIPTION: State the application^ broad, long-term objectives and specificwrns, making reference to the health relatedness of the project. Describe concisely the research design and methods for achieving these goals. Avoid summaries of past accomplishments and the use of the first person. This description is meant to serve as a succinct and accurate description of the proposed work when separated from the application. If the application is funded, this description, as is, will become public information. Therefore, do not include proprietary/confidential information. DO NOT EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. The overall purpose of this project is to build global capacity and collaboration to better understand, investigate, control and prevent environmental and occupational health problems in developing countries and the United States. This goal will be accomplished by_implementing a multidimensional research and training model in environmental and occupational health that has been developed over the last five-and-a-half years in the Central/Eastern European region. Countries collaborating in these activities will include: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania," and the Ukraine. Thirty scientists and health professionals from these countries will be trained at The University of Iowa at the intermediate-term level, thirty at the short-term level, and five at the long-term, advanced degree level. Centers of excellence in collaborating countries will be developed and strengthened by the increased knowledge and skills of returning trainees, by thirty small research projects and forty-five in-country workshops conducted by returning trainees and their U.S. faculty mentors, by five re-entry research projects of long-term trainees, and by participating in and co- hosting five summer institutes, two rural health conferences, and two workshops on informationtechnology. All of these activities will also serve to complement and reinforce research and training activities of partner agencies such as those currently conducted by NIEHS, CDC,NCI, and EPA. The transition of trainees to positions of responsibility and influence will be facilitated by recognition of their expertise and leadership through organizing and conducting short courses/workshops in their respective countries and an annual summer institute regionally, by participation in an annual Fogarty Fellows regional network meeting, by support for participation in scientific meetings and conferences, by provision of computer systems to enhance professional activities, and by publishing and presenting the results of on- going research. Research results will be translated into public health practice through the above-mentioned series of short courses/workshops, summer institutes, regional conferences, and by the' direct influence of trainees in positions of responsibility within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. PERFORMANCE SITE(S) (organization, city, state) University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA International Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine,.Bratislava, Slovak Republic KEY PERSONNEL. See instructions on Page 11. Use continuation pages as needed to provide the required information in the format shown below. Name Organization Role on Project Thomas Cook University of Iowa Principal Investigator Robin Ungar University of Iowa Associate Director PHS 398 (Rev.4/98) Page 2 BB Number pages consecutivelyat the bottom throughout the application. Do not use suffixes such as 3a. 3b. Principal Investigator/Program Director (Lasf, first, middle): Cook, Thomas M. V^ Aype the name of the principal investigator/prog^k|irector at the top of each printed page and each coj^iuation page. (For type specifications, see instructions onpage 6.) ^^F RESEARCH GRANT